(Image credit score: NASA/Aubrey Gemignani)
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — A crew of 4 astronauts arrived at Kennedy Home Heart (KSC) in Florida Friday (April 16) in advance of SpaceX’s 2d operational astronaut delivery for NASA.
NASA astronauts Megan McArthur and Shane Kimbrough, alongside with Eastern astronaut Akihiko Hoshide and France’s Thomas Pesquet, had been all smiles as they stepped off a plane, after it parked on the ragged space shuttle runway here at KSC.
Their mission, called Crew-2, will peek a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket delivery a Crew Dragon spacecraft on a 24-hour day out to the Worldwide Home Situation (ISS). Liftoff is determined for April 22 at 6: 11 a.m. EDT (1011 GMT) from Pad 39A here, if weather permits.
Meet Crew-2: The 4 space-sure astronauts launching aboard SpaceX’s Crew Dragon
The quartet of astronauts departed from Ellington Topic near NASA’s Johnson Home Heart in Houston on Friday morning and flew to KSC aboard a constitution plane. Upon arrival, they had been greeted by acting NASA administrator Steve Jurczyk, KSC director Bob Cabana, Europe ISS program manager Franke de Winne and Junichi Sakai, manager of Japan’s ISS program.
“Welcome to Kennedy Home Heart,” Cabana stated throughout a media occasion this day marking the crew’s arrival. “How huge is it to absorb the Crew-2 crew here for the third delivery of humans to space in lower than a twelve months?”
“What an exhilarating time for our nation’s human spaceflight program,” he added.
Crew-2 incessantly is the 2d operational crewed mission for SpaceX and the first in which astronauts scoot in a beforehand flown Crew Dragon spacecraft on high of a flight-confirmed rocket. This Falcon 9’s first stage furthermore launched the Crew-1 astronauts, who are currently dwelling on the gap set aside of dwelling, in November 2020. And this Crew Dragon spacecraft, is believed as Endeavour, made its first day out to space in Might maybe well 2020, when it toted NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley to the orbiting lab on the Demo-2 test mission.
Now, each and every of those vehicles will flit astronauts for a 2d time. (And, if all goes as deliberate, this Falcon 9 first stage will furthermore delivery SpaceX’s Inspiration4 mission — with the first all-civilian crew — to Earth orbit later this twelve months.)
“Right here’s a mission of firsts,” Jurczyk stated throughout this day’s occasion.
Besides to the reusability milestones outlined above, “or no longer it is the first commercial mission flying two of our global companions to the set aside of dwelling and returning them house, or no longer it is the first commercial crew handover on the ISS, and or no longer it is the first time two commercial crew spacecraft will seemingly be docked to the set aside of dwelling,” Jurczyk added. “So, upright an incredibly tantalizing mission.”
Reuse is a key priority of SpaceX. It modified into as soon as a grief for the NASA and SpaceX groups to certify each and every the spacecraft and the delivery automobile for this mission, however they did so throughout a flight readiness overview the day earlier to this (April 15).
Currently, there are 10 astronauts dwelling on the ISS, with three scheduled to creep house sooner than Crew-2 will get off the bottom. NASA astronaut Kate Rubins and cosmonauts Sergey Ryzhikov and Sergey Kud-Serchkov launched on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft on Oct. 21. They’re space to climb abet on board their Soyuz spacecraft tonight and land on Earth early Saturday morning (April 17).
McArthur, Kimbrough, Hoshide and Pesquet will join Crew-1’s Victor Glover, Mike Hopkins, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi and the trio of Ticket Vande Hei, Oleg Novitsky and Pyotr Dubrov, who got here up on a Soyuz. (Glover, Hopkins, Walker and Vande Hei are NASA astronauts, Noguchi is Eastern and Novitsky and Dubrov are Russian.)
The Crew-1 quartet will creep away the set aside of dwelling at the live of the month, bringing the option of crewmembers abet down to seven.
Crew-2 purchased the first price inexperienced light from NASA on Thursday after passing the flight readiness overview. There’s one grief that SpaceX is currently investigating, however, and desires to clear sooner than the Falcon 9 is test-fired on Saturday.
That grief has to relieve out with the propellant loading of the Falcon 9. Preflight inspections confirmed that there may be more liquid oxygen loading into the rocket than modified into as soon as anticipated. Assorted Falcon 9 first phases absorb flown with this discrepancy with zero components, SpaceX representatives stated, however NASA isn’t always no doubt taking any possibilities with crew on board. Both the agency and SpaceX are taking a find into the grief sooner than delivery.
Both the Crew Dragon pill and the rocket rolled to the pad on Friday morning, as delivery preparations proceed at Pad 39A. Besides to the static-fireplace test scheduled for Saturday, there could be a final delivery readiness overview that may happen on Tuesday (April 20).
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